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Vermont Education System

Communities - Vermont Education System

Every Student Succeeds Act

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015, as the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. With a goal of ensuring equitable outcomes for historically marginalized students nationwide, ESSA outlines expectations of states concerning school accountability, and distribution of federal funding for student supports.

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The Vermont State Plan

In response to ESSA, and to the 2014 adoption of Vermont’s Education Quality Standards (EQS), the Agency of Education has drafted a Vermont State Plan describing how the requirements of EQS and ESSA will translate into state education practice. As a part of this work, the state was largely driven by the core tenets of EQS: personalization, proficiency, and a commitment to providing high quality, equitable learning opportunities for all of Vermont’s students.

Decision Logic

As Vermont assembled a draft plan for public comment and federal review, it applied the following lenses to its proposed solutions, listed in order of importance:

EQUITY: proposed solutions should support equitable outcomes and learning opportunities for all of Vermont’s students.ALIGNMENT: proposed solutions should align with the stated goals and values of state education policy wherever possible.EFFICIENCY: proposed solutions should obtain useful results for the lowest possible cost of time and financial resources.PRACTICALITY: proposed solutions should reflect the AOE and field’s capacity to support implementation, and should avoid creating unnecessary burdens and duplicative processes.